Actor Growth

As mentioned yesterday, today was the day that I got to see how one would tackle an audition that has character voice overs. Funny enough, what happened at first was that we were told the top section of the sides would be omitted. Afterwards, we did indeed run through the scene with the remaining voiceover dialogue.

Basically, we just had to do the audition as if the thought bubble voice over part was the main scene while ignoring the action where the present form character is in motion. I tell ya, this was super confusing at first for me in trying to determine exactly what was going on logistically.

It was so confusing for me that when I did it the first time around I thought that the two characters were actively in a corridor while having a small argument with each other as they were waiting for a security system to go down. Hence, I was playing it like they were next to each other and that the character was actively looking at the camera in the ceiling while waiting fir it to turn off.

The funny thing? I did the audition very well where in the scene I gave a lot of good reactions while establishing my environment. The thing is though, apparently that whole part was all a bubble memory still and the character was actually all by himself. So, I did the scene again with the coach’s notes. He expressed how I nailed it and that it’s so great that I can easily take direction.

He then suggested that every time I get an audition that I should call him up first so that I can talk it over as it seems like it’s usually just the interpretation of the audition sides that I get confused with at times. But once I know what it is all about I have no problems. I guess again that comes from having studied mostly in a scene study oriented program where you always go through the scenes extensively with the director.

After class I did talk to the coach about my career direction to try and create some goals to advance to the next step. Because at this point it is pretty stagnant professionally speaking. Here was the interesting thing. He was commenting how I have the skills, I can take direction very well where I am easy to work with and that there is this energy about my work where I don’t even need to try too hard to make an impact in a scene. He then said that I just needed someone who can get my foot in the door, so to speak.

Afterwards, he said that he was going to help me with it. Yeah, I was kind of shocked. Basically, he was fully willing to help guide me in my career path, give me advice and doing things such as checking out my demo reel and making sure that my representation is working for me. So, the first thing is that he will be taking a look at my demo reel to see what needs changing and if I should include different scenes.

What a great gesture I thought. It’s like having a mentor and a manager in some ways. Talk about going above and beyond. Looking forward to see what happens next.

Okay, this is interesting. I got the sides for tomorrow’s audition class. The side looks like it is going to be heavily dependent on the actor being able to pull off reactions as well as establishing the surrounding. The tricky thing is that in this scene a large part of it is like when you hear what the characters are thinking in their head.

Hence, it can be like a guy and a girl on a date and while watching the show you hear their thoughts on how they feel so nervous. Now in this case the sides explicitly say that the actor should read the voice overs as well and there is a lot of action in it.

I’m just thinking, how the heck do you pull this off? Like in the dating scene scenario, wouldn’t that look kind of silly in context of what is going on? One thing is for sure, I am glad I am doing this in the audition class as I have never seen a request like this and it is better to make the mistakes in class.

Today I saw a posting from a fairly established acting school here where next month they are offering this audition workshop for free. It looks like it is fairly new and so I suppose this is a way for them to try and attract more students to it. Even though I am currently enrolled in a weekly workshop I was thinking of checking that one out too to see what it is like. It’s almost like auditing schools again.

In some ways I think I may have been training at the current place for too long maybe too as it has been like 5 months almost. It has helped in a sense in terms of brushing up my skills in impressing a casting director, but it wasn’t exactly a real audition.

So professionally in terms of career advancement you can say I am almost in the same spot. Actually, I am assessing this at the moment too as part of my career goal planning. So maybe auditing this would be a good thing to really make me see if anything needs changing in the training department.

I got an interesting feedback today that was very enlightening. Today when I first preformed the audition sides the coach commented how everything was great and that what he wanted to see was for me to pick up the pace a bit as he felt it could go a little faster. It was kind of funny as there were only two of us that did the same scene to compare and while my feedback was to do it faster the other guy’s feedback was to do it slower.

So I did the scene again and he mentioned that he felt it was such a small change but it made things so much better. Here was the interesting part. He then said he wanted to try something with me. With that he took over the reader’s job and was now acting as the audition reader for me.

I didn’t really know what to expect but as always what I do when I am acting is that as long as I establish who the character is you can pretty much adapt to anything. What the coach did was that he kind of changed it up a bit such as times where he would do physical gestures implying that he was going to beat me up. As expected, I reacted to it and went with the flow of his new pace where the scene was done a lot faster.

He then commented how it was fantastic that I reacted to all of this. Then e pointed out that I should watch out for that as I really do react off of what the reader gives me. For example, if they are reading it slow the most likely I will respond to it in a slow pace too. He emphasized how that is fantastic as an actor especially when you are on set where you are actually shooting the show.

For an audition though I have to be very careful he mentioned as that means if the reader is very bad they could literally destroy my audition. Therefore, I have to make sure that I can do the scene as intended even if the reader is bad or at least instruct them to try to do it a certain way in order to adapt to the direction I am going for.

That’s kind of funny when you think about it as listening and reacting is a huge component in making a scene believable I’d say and it is also why chemistry is so important in casting actors to do a role. Whereas in an audition you have to be a little more aggressive if the person isn’t giving you the dialogue right.

It was another pretty standard day in terms of what we did. There was one thing interesting though. The sides that we got dealt with some kind of thief that was orchestrating a robbery as it was his job to scout the place out for a few days. In the process he meets this girl that he kind of falls in love with. Therefore, in the midst of the robbery he decides he wants to try to change his life and to make sure this girl doesn’t get shot in the process by the other people.

Based on what I read I first interpreted it as the girl was dumbfounded about the situation and as the thief confessed about his background she just thought it was a joke and persisted that it is one. As the script indicates, it’s not until further in the conversation that she starts to fear for her life.

So my direction was to do it in a very serious way where the character is trying to tell her he is dead serious and is telling her this because he doesn’t want her to get hurt. Guess it’s like a guy saying he is in a crazy gang that is about to destroy the place where you just laugh at the idea and it’s not until he keeps talking about it with some very detailed information that you start to realize he is dead serious.

So in the first round the coach was saying the intensity level was definitely there. Except he started to say that the guy was supposed to be extremely remorseful about admitting his professions to the lady and in order to convince her to follow him to safety he needed to be more empathetic I guess you can say. So in my mind, that meant that this character was extremely weaker than what I thought.

I debated about the choices and direction for awhile as some of them seemed like it was more about a directional choice. But, as a challenge of an actor I think the key to an audition is that you need to be adaptable to take direction and so I did. I re-did the scene with all the feedbacks and direction.

Afterwards, the coach said that I nailed it and just like from a previous class where he thought my performance was amazing he said that I achieved that same level with this. I was thinking even more and it seems like at this point of my training and the feedback that I have been getting is that acting is not an issue at all when it comes to the audition process but rather trying to get the interpretation right the first time. That is such a subjective thing too.

On a side note I learned that one of my classmates landed a role in that feature film the A Team. While that is great news, even he was joking about it as before he was saying that he wanted to grow his hair as he feels that he could get more auditions that way. Wouldn’t you know it, this role that he landed requires him to shave his hair and go bald. Funny how things work in life sometimes.

I was reading some conversations today that had a bunch of acting school owners trying to convince actors that they are the best schools to go with. At the same time, former students were giving their reviews of them which created some heated debate.

While I think it is important to make sure you are staying on top of your game as an actor, choosing an acting school or coach is one of the most tedious parts of the actor life I’d say. Basically, there are so many schools that just want your money. So usually the recommended way to finding an ideal school for you is to audit everyone before committing to them.

These places aren’t cheap usually either. For example, I’ve seen prices here that charge $225 for a one day workshop and six month programs that go well over $10,000. So that should be an incentive for you not to just abruptly throw your money to just any school. Of course, some actors just opt to do it the alternative way to get better at their craft where they just act in a bunch of independent films.

Funny enough though, out of all the places I have trained at I only audited one place. I think the only place I would have really reconsidered was the place I went for the full time program as I don’t think it has really helped me too much overall when you factor in the cost and time I committed to it compared to others.

What really turns me off is when a school advertises itself as if they were the ones that discovered such big stars and that you are guaranteed that type of success if you spend your money with them. It just feels too much like a sales pitch. Class sizes are a big issue too as if the room is constantly crammed with a bunch of people that is sure a good indication that they are just trying to maximize profits.

I was given the advice before too that a good way in choosing a school and instructor is to see if they are working actor themselves. That way, they can better keep you in the loop with current happenings and what certain casting directors are like.